Indie Music Universe

A big thank you to all those who voted in our first contest ever!  Well, the results are in and the winning design is design #3.

We randomly selected one grand prize winner and two runner ups from the group who voted for the third design.  Congratulations and a big round of applause to Tomika, the first place winner, and Frode and Simon — our two runner ups (go ahead, clap with us — and use your hands only).

Although this was our first contest, we plan on having many more in the future, with great prizes and exiting new music.  We plan on doing another one for Thanksgiving and also a couple of smaller giveaways in between.

So be sure to check out our Twitter site at http://twitter.com/indiemusicu to see the new design in action and to be informed of our upcoming giveaways.  If you missed this one, get yer tails on the next one!  Also, if you haven't already connected with us on Facebook (who's not on that site nowadays??), we'd love you as a fan.

Click here to connect with us on Facebook.

Lastly (then I'll shut up — for now), we are in the process of revamping the site.  We're gonna hit you with a lot of great new content, including exclusive interviews, event listings and guides, great editorials, more reviews, more exciting new music, and hot naked men and women.  Well, maybe not that last part, but you catch my drift.  We're going to be bigger and better (man I hate cliches, but I can't think of anything better this late).

One last thing…I know I know — last little blurb, I promise!  For all you indie musicians, bands, and artists, we have some exciting new opportunities coming up for you to be featured and exposed to a lot of hungry indie music fans (in a good way, of course — c'mon, I was seriously joking about the nudity comment above). 

Take care, and in the meantime, rock those faces off!!!

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Greetings, my fellow indie music lovers!

We are pleased to announce our very first contest at Indie Music Universe — the Halloween Twitter Background Contest.  We’ve got a great prize to give away, so listen up…

We need your help in choosing the best Holloween themed background design for our Twitter page at http://twitter.com/indiemusicu.  We have four great designs that were created by our talented staff of artists. 

Here’s how the contest will work.  Check out the four links below.  Each link will bring you to a page that displays a model of a Halloween Twittter background.  After you take a look at each one, fill out the form right under the links.  Leave your first name, email address, and write which design you like best in the comments box (i.e. design 1, design 2, design 3 or design 4).  Be sure to choose only one.

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Popularity: 7% [?]

By Kristin Anderson

Hello my Indie lovers, I have some news from the mothership.  I have made contact again with a new species of music.  This time having delved into an electric candlelit dream of classical revelation and electronic revolution. 

TEALIGHTS is an indie-electronica band with classical infusions founded in June 2008. Early into its conception, the band found itself experimenting with vox harmonies, electronic beats, live drums, synths, pedals, keyboard, guitar, bass, cello, flute, melodica, and bells. Mary's luminous brand of vocals twined with lead singer Nancy's delicate, droning tone sets the perfect balance for Tealights. To accentuate Mikey's electronic brilliance, Brett creates another dimension using gadgets and live drums.

Tealights began debuting their sound locally in September 2008 and have grasped comparisons to the likes of The Cranberries and Portishead. They have since graced the stage as opening acts for the Octopus Project, Parenthetical Girls, the Evangelicals, Starfucker, and Asobi Seksu. In March 2009, Tealights officially released their demo. The official debut EP entitled Take Us By Sea will be released on Sept 29 at the Drunken Unicorn, followed by an east coast tour in October and southwest tour in November.

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We’ve just become the sister site of CD Universe, a major online retailer of music, movies, and games.  We’re planning for many exciting and significant developments over the next few months that will benefit both indie music fans and indie music artists/bands.  Our focus will still remain primarily on the fans, but we’ll also have many great opportunities for artists and bands to get major exposure and recognition.

We’ll keep you informed as things develop here at Indie Music Universe.  As usual, your feedback and suggestions are greatly appreciated and really do matter.  If there’s some feature or section you’d like to see on the site, let us know and we’ll explore the possibility.

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By Peter Bartos

These days music is predominantly seen as a by-product of entertainment. Big record companies contract only musicians who seem to be popular and profit-making. Songs we hear on radio sound as they originated from one and the same "hit making" computer program performed by convertible artists. Listeners are filled up with a mash of irrelevance and musical boredom.

There are only few people who intensively engage themselves with serious music to discover their own musical taste and style while the majority is bothered with the same song seven times a day on mainstream radio stations or on TV. Most popular musicians are hunting for money and fame while music as an art form gets more and more negligible among mainstream artists.

As a consequence of this, the independent music scene becomes more and more popular as it can be seen from sales figures and music charts. But what is independent music or indie music? On the one hand it stands for independence from major commercial record labels and on the other hand it means an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording and publishing. Despite popular associations with Acoustic Alternative Rock, Indie Music is not a genre. Indie music is not confined to a specific style of music, it can cover everything from Indie Rock, Punk, Rap, Country, Emo, Blues, Jazz and everything in between.

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